How to Create a Learning and Development Strategy That Drives Growth and Performance

In today's fast-paced business environment, continuous learning and development are the cornerstones of organizational success. 

It's most organizations' dream to create a resilient and future-proof workforce. One that can maintain productivity despite any disruptive industry changes. A workforce that can think critically and find innovative solutions to challenges.

And this is what an effective learning and development strategy does for you.

But for learning and development (L&D) to truly drive performance and growth, it needs a robust strategy.

This article will: 

• Guide you through the process of creating a growth-driving L&D strategy. 
• Discuss the key components, explore best practices, and provide actionable insights to help you design a strategy that propels your team to new heights.

👩‍🎓 What's a learning and development strategy (L&D strategy)?

A learning and development (L&D) strategy is a plan created by organizations to align their employee training initiatives with their overall business goals.

An L&D strategy aims to: 

• Enhance employees' skills, knowledge, and competencies. 
• Improving job performance and satisfaction.
• Facilitate continuous learning and career progression within the organization.

What is the strategic role of learning and development within organizations?

An L&D strategy plays a key role in pushing an organization's overall objectives forward. It shapes the business's long-term strategic direction.

This is because the key aspects of L&Ds have a positive effect on several critical areas:

• Improving the value of human capital through relevant upskilling and reskilling programs.
• Promoting a culture of learning that cultivates the right environment for workplace innovation.
• Developing leadership skills.
• Equipping employees with the right attitudes, skills, and expertise to respond positively to major organizational changes and business initiatives.

🖇️ Discover 6 compelling reasons why you should link performance management and learning.

🪜 A 10-step guide for creating a winning learning and development strategy

Step 1: Understand the needs, priorities, and objectives of your organization

Start by addressing these questions: 

What are your strategic objectives and overall goals? 

Which knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) does your workforce need to effectively contribute to achieving these objectives and goals?

Here is an example.

Suppose your objective is to increase customer loyalty. In that case, improved customer relationship management will likely be an organizational priority.

In such a case, effective communication and problem-solving skills are some of the KSAs your L&D strategy should focus on.

Why this step is important: It'll help you make the connection between the direction the organization is taking and your L&D programs.

Step 2: Identify the skills gaps

Next, conduct a skills gap analysis. It evaluates the gap between employees' capabilities and the KSAs identified in step one.

Once you identify the skills shortage, you'll know where your priorities lie when designing your learning and development programs.

Why this step is important: It'll help you conduct more targeted training.

Step 3: Analyze your performance and retention data

Learning and development programs have a major impact on employee retention and performance.

Analyze your performance and retention data before implementing your L&D strategy. It'll provide baseline metrics to analyze the impact of your L&D programs.

Why this step is important: It'll make it easy to quantify the change in performance and retention resulting from the learning and development programs.

Step 4: Establishing business goals and objectives

Establish the business goals you want to achieve from your L&D strategy.

Of course, these goals should align with the broader business priorities and objectives.

Remember to define the key metrics and KPIs that you'll track to keep your L&D programs on course.

Why this step is important: It aligns your training activities with your business activities.

Step 5: Define the vision of your L&D Strategy

Be clear on what your organization should look like once you've accomplished L&D strategy goals.

Here are a few examples of L&D visions:

• Establish a strong learning culture and build a workforce that embraces innovative thinking.
• Develop a high-performance workforce through skill mastery.
• Promote a growth mindset among employees through continuous learning.

Why this step is important: It provides a clear picture of long-term success in your L&D strategy.

Step 6: Set clear learning objectives

This step involves defining the intended learning outcomes. It helps employees understand what they'll get out of the training.

Define your learning objectives based on:

1. your business objectives; 
2. the deficiencies identified in the skills gap analysis.

Why this step is important: Learning objectives are a compass for your L&D programs. They guide the design, delivery, and evaluation of the training activities.

Step 7: Choose the right learning methods

Determine which learning methods and tools will most effectively address employees' skill gaps and perfect their existing knowledge.

💡 Tip: A blend of learning methods is the best choice. It will serve more learning styles and be a great learner engagement strategy. 

Use formal and informal training methods incorporating active, passive, and experiential approaches.

Consider using both internal and external subject matter experts as well.

It provides a variety of learning experiences and caters to the different learning preferences of your employees.

Why this step is important: The right methods will optimize the use of the learning resources available while maximizing learning effectiveness.

Step 8: Incorporate professional development opportunities

Don't only focus on providing courses for the skill gaps you identify. 

Create professional development opportunities that employees can take up voluntarily depending on their career goals.

This can be:

• coaching and mentorship programs;
• leadership programs;
• certifications;
• training programs.

Why this step is important: Access to professional development opportunities improves employee engagement, performance, and productivity. It also creates a flexible workforce and nurtures a learning culture.

Step 9: Set a budget

Your training budget should factor in all direct and indirect costs related to the training and development activities.

As you allocate the resources, prioritize the L&D activities based on their strategic importance and alignment with organizational goals.

Why this step is important: It ensures strategic spending without overspending on things that aren't a priority. It also helps the L&D executives make decisions based on numbers instead of hunches.

Step 10: Monitor and evaluate the business impact of the strategy

Finally, measure your L&D programs' effectiveness. Assess the overall impact of the learning and development activities on business performance.

Be sure to check:

• the impact of the L&D activities on the organization's goals and priorities;
• the effectiveness of the training activities in addressing skill gaps;
• the improvement in performance and retention;
• training ROI.

If you're using a reliable LMS, it should provide accurate data and reports to evaluate the results of your learning and development strategy. 

You can also use surveys to collect employees' input on the effectiveness of the learning and development program.

Here's a training evaluation form template to ask what they liked about it, what needs improving, and their overall opinion of the training.

Stakeholders like HR managers, leadership executives, and L&D executives can also provide feedback on the relevance and business outcomes of the programs.

Why this step is important: It'll help you prove the value of the L&D strategy.

💡 Tip: Keep revisiting and adjusting the L&D strategy based on organizational priorities changes.

💡 9 Best practices for developing your L&D strategy

1. Get leadership buy-in first and foremost

Start by getting senior management invested in your learning and development strategy.

The level of leadership support you get will determine the resources you can access to support your L&D strategy.

💡 Tip: Present your L&D strategy as an investment towards the organization's strategic goals instead of a cost.

Leadership support is also instrumental in setting the organizational policies that'll enable your L&D programs to flourish.

In addition, Garavan et al. highlight that getting leadership buy-in will promote the perceived importance of the L&D programs.

It adds to these programs' credibility, which promotes employee participation and engagement.

In addition to getting their general support, have the leadership participate in the training activities.

Their participation will play a vital role in modeling a growth mindset in the organization.

Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify, offers this valuable piece of advice for HR leaders developing a learning strategy:

"Talk about this with senior leaders, with the CEO, with the leadership team, because it needs to start there. I don't think that we can have an HR leader that owns learning. It has to be owned by everyone, including the lead team."

🎶 Spotify invests heavily in L&D strategies that drive growth in its workforce. Here's the complete case study of employee development at Spotify.

2. Involve employees in the planning process

Let the employee take charge of their learning and development. Give them space to shape their learning experience.

It creates a sense of ownership over the training initiatives and builds their commitment.

Here are a few ideas:

• Carry out a training needs assessment. Use it to get employees' input on the skill gaps and learning methods. 

🔎 We have a handy training needs assessment survey template to get you started.

• Have a training library where employees can self-enroll in a variety of courses.
• Create room for employees to provide feedback on the L&D initiatives and initiate development conversations with managers.

3. Create personalized learning paths

It's easy to focus on the organization's goals and forget the employees' unique needs. Yet, personalized training is crucial to making it more meaningful for the employees.

Personalize learning journeys based on each learner's employee development plan. 

It'll match the L&D activities to individual interests, career paths, development needs, and personal goals.

Another idea is to segment your employees based on their learning styles, role, and experience. Then tailor your training materials accordingly.

Consider segmenting your learners by age as well. Implementing diversity and inclusion in L&D is one of the learning and development trends we recommend you embrace.  

"If diversity and inclusion are seen as key drivers, then any strategy developed will need to capture those elements to ensure that everyone is afforded an opportunity for growth and career progression, no matter their age." Angela Mulvie, Learning and Development for a Multigenerational Workforce: Growing Talent Amongst Age Diverse Employees.

So, think about the age diversity in your workforce. We're at a time when Generation X and Millennials are working together. And Gen Z is already joining the workforce.

4. Integrate learning into daily work

Instead of viewing learning as a separate activity, integrate it into daily work.

It encourages a culture of continuous learning. It also creates opportunities for employees to apply the knowledge and skills they acquire.

Google's whisper courses are an excellent learning and development strategy for integrating training into daily work.

Learning and development specialists at the tech giant created whisper courses to deliver on-the-job microlearning to their managers. The goal was to help managers create psychological safety within the organization.

The whisper courses were bite-sized lessons (whispers) delivered in emails. Each lesson contained a suggestion for the manager to try during a team meeting or 1:1 session.

Such an approach wins in two areas:

• Providing managers with actionable ideas while on the job creates contextual relevance. It increases knowledge retention.
• Delivering the lessons in digestible micro-units is effective in driving behavioral change.

🤖 Get all the scoop on employee development at Google.

5. Continuously update the strategy based on feedback and results

Create a feedback loop that encourages employees, managers, and stakeholders to share their insights on the effectiveness of the L&D program.

Give them room to provide recommendations on areas for improvement.

Then turn these recommendations into action plans that provide a clear roadmap for enhancing the learning and development strategy.

6. Ensure there's co-ownership between Human Resources and other business units

As Spotify's Johanna Bolin Tingvall said, HR shouldn't exclusively own L&D. 

Your strategy will benefit more when there's co-ownership with other business units.

The reason? Leaders in these business units have first-hand knowledge of their divisions' operational needs and challenges.

They have a deeper understanding of the competencies their team needs to excel in their roles.

So, collaborating with these units helps you focus on the competencies most relevant to the organization's success.

7. Link L&D to other key people processes

Linking your L&D strategy to key HR processes creates a comprehensive and integrated approach to employee training programs. It builds an integrated system that supports the entire employee life cycle.

This reduces confusion when:

• Identifying the key skills new hires should have.
• Establishing performance improvement plans (PIP).
• Creating reskilling, upskilling, and managerial training programs for internal hiring and succession planning.

8. Add diversity to your learning and development offerings

The best L&D strategies use diverse methods to equip employees with knowledge. This diversity builds engagement.

It offers different approaches to topics that reinforce understanding.

To add diversity to your L&D programs, try the 70-20-10 model. Here's a breakdown of how you can deliver your training using this method:

• 70% through on-the-job training.
• 20% through social learning. This involves observing peers' behavior, such as coaching, mentoring, and discussion forums. There's a lot more involved here, have a look at this resource on social learning in the workplace.
• 10% through formal training programs. This can be tutorials, seminars, and other training sessions delivered in a classroom-like environment.

📖 Check out this comprehensive guide on the 70-20-10 model.

💡 Tip: Stay up to date with the latest trends in learning and development. Ensure you're using the most effective and modern training approaches.

9. Invest in the best technology

A learning experience platform can take your training efforts to the next level.

Look out for platforms that enable personalization, allowing employees to pursue self-directed learning and making it easy for you to track progress.   

Even better if you can use your chosen LXP alongside a powerful LMS within a shared interface.

Like Zavvy does. 

It offers a powerful learning experience platform. The platform lets you build a library of self-made and external world-class learning resources.

Zavvy offers an AI-enhanced LMS that includes:

• The option to combine several modern training approaches, like microlearning and group activities.
• Deep insights that let you create performance and data-driven programs.
• Ability to incorporate learning into the flow of work using practical microlessons.
• Capability to integrate the LMS with your HR management tools.

🏆 7 Advantages of implementing a learning and development strategy

The benefits a great L&D strategy carries make it a key player in having a winning people strategy.

Enabling more targeted training efforts

The primary goal of a learning and development strategy is to create training programs that support the implementation of your organization's objectives.

To achieve this, you have to identify the competencies your employees need to play their part. Then assess the areas they're lacking.

This helps you create training content that directly addresses existing skill gaps.

Improving performance management

L&D programs create opportunities for ongoing feedback loops between managers and employees.

It leads to timely and targeted performance management interventions. And this keeps the employees' performance in line with the organization's objectives.

You can further link learning and performance management by adding specific performance goals to the training programs. Doing this gives employees more clarity on the relevance of the training to their performance.

Meeting training needs in the organization

A great strength of an effective L&D strategy is that it's systematic in its execution.

It provides a structured framework that helps organizations:

• Clarify the direction the training activities should take and the expected outcome.
• Allocate enough resources to support the L&D programs.
• Find the most effective training delivery methods.
• Continuously evaluate and improve the results of the L&D programs.

This helps the organization fully meet its training needs.

Filling skill gaps

Garavan et al. describe some crucial contributions of an effective L&D strategy:

• Skill development: Your L&D strategy describes how to equip employees with hard skills and soft skills.
• Competency enhancement: Your strategy enables employees to apply knowledge and skills to applicable workplace situations and take the most logical actions.
• Development of know-how knowledge: Your strategy provides employees with formal knowledge on how to perform tasks. They get this knowledge through instructions.
• Development of tacit knowledge: Employees acquire knowledge that isn't explicitly taught. Rather, employees get it through the experience of performing tasks, such as on-the-job training activities. 

These contributions fill any identified and unidentified skill gaps in the organization.

Staying abreast of industry changes

A great learning and development strategy incorporates both internal and external learning resources.

External training resources are an excellent source for employees to gain insights into the latest developments, trends, and technologies in the industry.

Facilitating higher attraction and retention

Employee development statistics show 94% of employees are willing to stay longer in an organization that offers L&D opportunities. Another 70% would readily leave their current organization for one that invests in L&D.   

If you have a great L&D strategy, you'll attract top talent and inspire long-term commitment.

Enabling better workforce planning

An L&D strategy involves assessing the KSAs of the current workforce against what's needed for present and future roles in the organization.

It empowers Human Resources to create data-driven talent management strategies to fill existing gaps. They get accurate insights to ensure that people with the right skills are in the right roles and at the right time.

➡️ Supercharge learning and development with Zavvy

Your L&D strategy can greatly impact the employee experience in your company and your people's performance. 

And you need a trusty partner to translate your strategy into change. Meet Zavvy 360° Growth System.

Why choose Zavvy?

• Nurture your team's growth: Accelerate their progress with personalized development plans and over 10,000 learning materials. 
• Take the reins on your team's career progression: With dynamic competency matrices, leveling frameworks, and distinct career paths, you will establish open and clear processes that will drive your high performers to reach for the stars.
• Unearth valuable insights from multi-rater feedback to bolster growth: Enhance team performance with our intuitive performance evaluation, skill gap assessments, insightful feedback summaries, and competency reports.
• Need a digital ally? Zavvy's AI assistant is at your service to streamline your processes and maximize efficiency. Ask Zavvy AI to design your company-wide career progression, leveling framework, and much more. 
• Say no to isolated processes! With Zavvy, blend performance feedback, actionable development initiatives, and training resources for a seamless experience. 

Embrace the power to synchronize your people processes and witness extraordinary results.

📅 Ready to give it a try? Book a quick demo.

❓ FAQs

What role does an L&D strategy play in an organization?

An L&D strategy:

• Improves the value of human capital
• Promotes a learning culture
• Develops leadership skills
• Prepares employees for major organizational changes and business initiatives

What are the 5 stages of strategy development?

Basically, building an effective business strategy follows these stages:

1. Vision and mission. Clarify the objectives and goals you want to achieve
2. Needs assessment. Identify the necessary requirements to achieve your goals
3. Strategy formulation. Develop a plan to address the gaps identified during the needs assessment
4. Implementation and delivery. Put the plan into action.
5. Evaluation and improvement. Measure the results of your strategy implementation and make the changes necessary.